


Heliocentrism

by tismabel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), F/M, Gen, Scarlet Witch - Freeform, also plays as gen, quicksilver - Freeform, twincest if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 01:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3831292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tismabel/pseuds/tismabel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pietro used to tell her he thought the experiments just brought out what was already in them. He'd always run rings around her, a blur of motion to her stillness. But that wasn't the whole truth because Wanda knew deep down that she was simply staying still so her brother would have something to keep him grounded, an earth to his spinning satellite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heliocentrism

**Author's Note:**

> This is me working through some of my post-Age of Ultron feels. No real spoilers, just implied ones.
> 
> Feedback and maximoff-related emoting is very welcome

Pietro used to tell her he thought the experiments just brought out what was already in them, and she couldn't really disagree with him. She knew him almost as intimately as she knew herself. He'd always run rings around her, a blur of motion to her stillness.

When they were children their papa had recounted to them how long it took Wanda to follow her brothers first toddling. Pietro poked her in the ribs and teased her with “lazy bones” while she scowled in his general direction. But that wasn't the whole truth because Wanda knew deep down that she was simply staying still so her brother would have something to keep him grounded, an earth to his spinning satellite.

The other way Pietro might have been right, or at least telling the truth from his point of view, was that as far as he knew Wanda could definitely read minds. When they were 15 and she was taller than him for the first, and last, time, he all of sudden took to disappearing for hours on end. At first Wanda felt it like the pain of a sore tooth throbbing away until he would inevitably show up, usually just before dinner because even then, before the experiments, he ate enough to feed a small village.

“How were the battlements today?” she said one day to his shocked expression, but what she didn't mention was that their neighbour had seen him up there that afternoon and asked her what he was doing.

Pietro's surprise turned into sudden anger as he spat back at her “None of your business. Not everything I do has to involve you!”

But not long after he gave up his lonely sojourns and started spending his after school hours with her again. Thus ended his one and only rebellion against her.

After the laboratory and the doctors he wouldn't so much as let her out of sight. By then she was quite sure that if he wasn't there with her she might just spin out like a centrifuge. Strange things were happening to her that didn't entirely make sense. Some new force welled just under her finger nails, a hairs breath from erupting out in some cataclysm that she had no control over. The strain of keeping it all in was wearing on her, making it sometimes difficult to follow conversations. Filling up all her mind and drowning out everything else that wasn't absolutely essential. The only thing that pulled her back from that black maw of chaos was the warm sensation of his hand, the familiar scent that she'd had with her before she was even a person. It tied her to the world, kept her in the now and allowed her to get through through the worst of it.

As with all things, Pietro was first to master his powers. Before long he was revelling in his ability to speed off and back to her like a flash of colour. One time he appeared in front of her gleefully ringing the bell of a shiny new bicycle as he rode it around her in circles. She couldn't help but laugh and laugh, to which he looked as delighted as she had seen him in a long time. Certainly since before Tony Stark had crashed into their lives.

“What is it like? Going as fast as a bullet?” she quietly put to him later.

“I'll show you tomorrow.” he replied and sure enough the very next day he had her in his arms as they sped around the town. She thought she might be sick when they stopped and took a moment on all fours just to breath in and out a few times while he petted her back and darkly muttered to himself “Stupid. So stupid. You might have hurt her.”

She looked up at him then. Saw that he was almost on the verge of tears, and felt such a rush of affection for her brother that she couldn't help but smile.

“Let's do it again Pietro.”

His answering smile came out as brilliantly as the sun from behind a dark cloud and he scooped her up and again they were off, air whooshing past and buildings going by in a blur. She knew right then that no one else would ever be as close to her as he was. That this was a fundamental truth about them. An essential part of their characters that was fixed when everything else in their lives was in tumult. She could put her fingers on his wrist and not know whether the pulse under them was his or hers.

But of course it didn't really matter in the end whose pulse set the rhythm. As long as one heart beat away, the other one would answer in kind, and all would be fine.


End file.
